General Dental Council Is A Highly Effective And Well Managed Regulator Says Council For Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, UK

Main Category: Dentistry
Article Date: 01 Sep 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The General Dental Council is a highly effective and well managed regulator with a consistent focus on public protection and a commitment to continuous improvement.

That's the view of healthcare regulator watchdog the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) in its review of the GDC, released recently.

The GDC welcomed the review and said it was pleased its work in protecting the public had been recognised by the CHRE.

"We welcome the scrutiny that the review process provides and the opportunity for us to demonstrate accountability. I'm delighted the results show we are on the right track," GDC President Hew Mathewson says.

"The GDC has implemented some major changes over the past couple of years to enhance patient protection. We've introduced registration for some 40,000 dental nurses and dental technicians and other professionals, enhanced our fitness to practise procedures, launched the Dental Complaints Service and rolled out continuing professional development requirements to the whole dental team," Mr Mathewson says.

"We are not complacent though. The report highlights some areas where we need to improve, and I'm pleased to say we have already started work on them. We have an ambitious work plan which includes launching a system for regularly 'revalidating' dental professionals (we're on track to run pilots next year), continuing to drive down the time we take to deal with fitness to practise cases, and streamlining our registration processes. Our goal is to offer a better and more efficient and service to all those who contact us. We are looking forward to the challenges ahead," Mr Mathewson says.

1. The CHRE is the health professions' watchdog. Their primary purpose is to promote the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public by helping regulatory bodies become better regulators; setting and driving up standards for professional regulation; fostering greater harmonization of regulatory practice and outcomes and anticipating and influencing the future. The performance review report is available on their website: http://www.chre.org.uk/news/40/

2. The GDC's latest Annual Report is available on our website at http://www.gdc-uk.org.

General Dental Council